


the sounds next door

by bakerybirds



Category: One Direction
Genre: Angst, Harry Styles - Freeform, Louis Tomlinson - Freeform, M/M, Singer!Harry, depressed!louis, harry + louis, larry stylinson - Freeform, mentions of sexual / physical / verbal abuse, not extremely graphic but may still be triggering
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-11
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2018-05-01 04:13:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5191703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakerybirds/pseuds/bakerybirds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>@inkedfondness: AU:L&H live next door to each other and L's bedroom lines up with H's bathroom. H always sings in the shower at 3am. </p>
<p>Simply writing this fic because this AU struck me! All credits for the idea goes to inkedfondness on Twitter :) </p>
<p>I apologise for any grammar mistakes - this was unedited.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the sounds next door

It's constant. 

Every morning at 3 , Louis can hear the loud sound of water running , he gets so used to it now that he can almost feel the vibration , not from the trickling water though - from the deep , beautiful , symphonic voice that travels through the walls. 

Late Thursday , Louis gets home from work in the old mans pub and is alone as usual , he hangs his coat up and sits on his bed , shoving off his cheap-skate fake leather shoes and sighing out ; he relaxes his body against the headboard of his bed.

He waits.

Louis begins to cry - sob even quite loudly, he feels the tears slowly drip down his face and after a minute or so feels like he's drowning in the tears. That's when the water starts up , Louis shuts up.

"Oh I wish I could be more like you , do you wish you could me more like me?" the low , gorgeous voice sings or rather questions out quite angelically. Louis reckons the voice , made the song up - as he has never once heard the song.

He grabs the , once again , fake leather notebook that sits on his bed side table and jots down the lyrics he hears thoughtfully ; the notebook pathetically is filled up with the lyrics he has heard the voice sing , he knows it's obsessive and crazy of him but it's the only thing that stops him from buying a large bottle of paracetamol with bad intentions these days.

The voice hums quietly , Louis beckons foolishly in his head , that the voice sings loudly - as loud as he wants. When the singing starts up again with new words , Louis continues writing. He never wants it to stop , but unfortunately at about half 4 , it does. Louis can't wait for the next day.

-  
It's Friday , and Robert comes home from his 'family visit' , one that Louis doesn't even question as to why he wasn't to go. Because Louis knew , he knew that it was anything but a sweet family reunion.

That night , Louis silently sobbed into his pillow as he was being forced to enjoy his hair being pulled and nearly everywhere on his body bruising. 

He didn't hear the voice at 3am. 

Oh how he longed for the comfort of the syrupy sound as harsh sentences were muttered into his ear , Louis had since long managed to block the accessory words but somehow couldn't push away the bold ones , "Fat" , "Ugly" , "Whore." 

All was forgiven when he smiled brightly in the morning and made a beautiful breakfast for the man , "Here you go sweetie" he said , placing the tray on his lap. The man ignored him , the only pain Louis felt was physical - he couldn't find energy to pin emotional pain over the man.

When Louis came back from work , he saw all of Robert's clothes were gone , his travel suitcase gone , photos of his family , everything that Rob owned - gone. 

The boy , stuttered in his movement to his bed and widened his eyes trying to breathe but finding great difficulty , until he realised the time.

He realised the sound of the water and suddenly his breathing began to pace. "When I close my eyes , all the stars align and you are by my side , you are by my side." He doesn't note it down , instead he falls asleep , for the first time in a long time - peacefully.

-

Louis supposes the reason why he never sees the voice , is because of his strange schedule , he sleeps a lot from 7 til 2 , he then gets a shower himself , gets dressed and watches shitty channels on Freeview , then at 6 he leaves to work at the old Irish pub 10 minutes away from his apartment , on the weekends he mainly stays in as he doesn't know a life outside of his usual routine.

In fact he can't remember how it feels to hear the laughs of his little sisters , to see the proud smile on his mothers face when he was accepted into Manchester University of Football. 

If only he hadn't went away and been a fool , falling madly in love with Robert only a few months before he was supposed to be moving into a dorm and doing what he loves - instead moving to London in a flat with a man now gloomy and so much like the devil himself but once was bright and full of colour when Louis looked at him.

He hears a knock at the door and breathes out anxiously , there's only one person who it could be - Robert. Louis braces himself for a few hits and shoves , braces himself for the pain of probably being abused in all ways , it only happened in the living room on certain occasions.

He exhales the large breath , walks over to the door and grips the handle , he sucks up his courage and pulls open the door. 

He wasn't expecting the sight in front of him.

"Hi." The deep sound drawled out with a lazy smile , all long curls and pink plump lips - the most beautifulest , autumn green colour in the eyes. Louis hadn't looked at someone and felt so dizzy in a good way in so long.

"I-Hello" Louis , gently squeaks out ; he already feels crushed , his voice was never pleasant to him.

The now who Louis realises - tall and lanky man towers over him and keeps the small smile on really softly. "I'm Harry , I'm your next door neighbour - sorry it's taken so long to introduce myself , I've been busy." 

Louis visibly gasps , but soon covers it with a nervous chuckle , "I-I could say the same about myself , I mean , I should have - I should've welcomed you er , when I noticed we had - I had a new neighbour." 

Harry furrows his eyebrows for a second before smiling , "Do you mind if I come in? I made a cake , it'd be great to know you a bit better , I hardly know anyone around here." Louis feels , somewhat nice. "Yes , of course yeah , and thank you - you really didn't need to."

He ushers for Harry to come in and when the green eyed wonder places himself on the couch , he shuts the door quietly and walks over also sitting on the couch. "So , Harry , what made you eh , move to the big city?" Louis says , smiling small. But in his case , small for now is enough. 

Harry grins , "London has a lot of opportunities for me here , I like to sing , and my mate Niall plays guitar with me and we play a few gigs here and there , it's great here." Louis goes a bit flustered and contemplates whether or not to tell Harry , that he knows , that he sings. He decides against it. "That's great." He says.

The other boy nudges Louis , he pretends not to feel himself turn into a firework , all sparkles and soaring through the sky before disappearing completely. He hasn't felt affection in so long. "What about you?" The words echo through Louis' mind , Louis frowns a bit before putting on a smile that could still be mistaken for a frown. "That's a story for another day." Harry tilts his head slightly , "I'll wait." He says , Louis smiles before standing up , "Want some tea? We can try out that cake of yours!" He says , the boy jumps up from the couch , "I'll cut a few slices , you'll love it I hope - my cakes are orgasmic." Louis raises his eyebrows , "That right?" , Harry smirks obnoxiously , crossing his arms , "It's never not right." 

They both stare at each other before laughing loudly , Louis feels the happiness he'd been craving for , for the longest time.

-

The next few weeks , Louis feels his life turn from under the ground to slowly reaching up , he can see this light helping him. By light , he means crazily beautiful green eyes , enchanting him into anything but the sadness he felt with ... Robert.

Robert doesn't come back , Louis is glad and is sure this means he'll never be back. 

Harry sits on the couch , holding a bowl of salty popcorn in his arms and smiles as Louis walks into the room sitting down next to him and crossing his legs , putting the glasses on wine on the table. "What films are on?" He asks , yawning. The other boy doesn't say a word , looking fondly at Louis - "What?" , "Is there something on my face?" The curly-haired boy smiles , "Glasses?" Louis groans , "Don't make fun of them please , I need them sometimes." The boy frowns , "No they look great on you Lou , I'm taken a back by how lovely you look , hell in taken a back by how lovely you look - all the time." 

Louis blushes at Harry's words , "What are we watching?" , Harry lights up - "Grease!" he says excitedly. "No fucking way!" Louis shouts , Harry frowns , "I'm sorry this friendship cannot continue if you don't like Grease." Louis giggles , "Don't like Grease! I played Danny Zucko lead role in the school musical when I was 17 , used to have a whole scrapbook dedicated to the film when I was much younger ; I can't believe you like it too." 

Harry laughs , "I sing Grease songs in the shower a lot , you should know." Louis pales , "What..." 

Harry's face immediately pales also , "Forget I said that Lou-" , "You knew Harry? How- when did you-" Harry sighs. "I , always heard you crying Louis - I was scared to introduce myself because I was embarrassed because you definitely would know I'm that boy who sings at 3 in the morning , I-I , I kept on singing at the same time everyday because you seemed to stop crying."

Tears roll down Louis' eyes as he rocks backwards and forwards , he feels his whole body shake and can't hear Harry say his name worryingly , he feels Harry begin to wrap his arms around him and rock with him. He feels and hears soothing words whispered into his ear , he feels comfort.

It's not because of Harry though , he always has frequent panic attacks when memories of Robert being to flow into his mind ; it especially shows up now because he is terrified that Harry could hear everything Robert would say and do to him. Everything goes black as Louis' breath evens out and his eyes simply close , he still feels warm arms wrapped around him gently.

When he wakes up , he expects to be alone but he is laying on his bed wrapped in blankets and he hears the sound of a kettle boiling from the kitchen , he welcomes the sound because he knows Harry didn't freak out and leave. 

Slowly , he stands up and walks towards his bedroom door opening quietly as he walks into the kitchen. "Thank you." He says , Harry jumps and puts his hand to his chest , "Louis , you scared me aha , it's fine honestly." Louis sighs and sits at the kitchen table. "But it's not." He says looking sadly down at the marble tiled floors , Harry sits with him and puts down two cups of tea , "I remembered how you took it from the first time" He notes , wearing a warm smile. They both sit in a comfortable silence for a few minutes , sipping at their tea until - Louis breaks. "His name was Robert." He says , still looking at the marble tiles.

Harry seems registered at that , his head popping up from his tea. "It's okay you- you don't need to tell me anything if you don't want to." He says calmly , Louis however shakes his head , "No no , I have to."

"Okay." The boy says.

He listens with care to the story , feeling shocked at many parts ; "It makes a lot more sense though." He speaks , looking at the boy with those wide green eyes , "How - I always heard you crying , I never heard anyone else though." He says.

Louis lets out the least humorous laugh , "He was quiet when he...well , he made it loud enough for me to hear." Harry covers Louis' hand with his , "I'm sorry Lou , you didn't deserve someone to treat you like that - I've only known you for maybe a month now but , in that short time you've already , changed my life I guess." It's now Louis' turn to be caught off guard , "W-what?" He stutters. "Let's just say I , I had a rough case of writers block for a long time , but since I've met you I've felt the need to write almost every night." "You're the explosion of a firework , the gold sprinkles that disappear in the dark knight , I think about you, even when I try not to. I still think of you."

Harry stops and takes a deep breath , tears roll down Louis' face , a pink colour spread across his cheeks. Harry slowly leans forward , and moves his lips against Louis' lips gently , Louis moves his hands to rest on the other boys neck and kisses back with a small pressure. They both smile into the kiss , Harry holding him tightly , both rocking backwards and forwards in a slow rhythm. "I think it's time I start to breathe again , Harry." Louis speaks out , the boy simply puts his head against Harry's chest and grins when the boy says , 

"Yes Lou , it is." With a kiss pressed to the more petite boys forehead , Harry thinks that his songs will be a bit more joyous from now on.


End file.
